Hollow Wicker Basket.
As the modern-day's strongest sorcerer once said, "The best way to fight against a domain is to expand one's own domain."
Any sorcerer who fails to do so is either not confident they can win a tug-of-war between domains against their opponent or simply doesn't possess a domain of their own.
And thus, to protect oneself from the deadly effects of domains, anti-domain techniques were developed, so that even those with no domain of their own could have a fighting chance.
Hollow Wicker Basket is the progenitor of all those techniques.
This anti-domain technique was primarily used in ancient times and is the predecessor of the modern-day equivalent, New Shadow Style: Simple Domain.
Unlike New Shadow Style: Simple Domain, however, Hollow Wicker Basket casts away mobility and the use of one's hands entirely to achieve even stronger protection against the sure-hit effect of a domain.
It's done by joining both hands together to cast a net-like barrier around the sorcerer, which nullifies the sure-hit effect by disrupting the effective range of a domain's barrier with its own barrier, unlike a technique like Domain Amplification, which targets the cursed technique imbued inside a domain and nullifies the imbued technique itself.
And thus...
Reggie's hands snapped together the instant a dark barrier began forming around them, palms pressed flat, hands stretched, the posture of a man putting everything into a single gamble...
Before darkness could completely bloom around them, another barrier formed all over him, a net-like basket which engulfed him inside its protective circle. Just in time before the darkness cut out the majority of the sunlight.
And then he saw a giant cross with two weighing plates materialize behind me.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
"...Huh." Reggie straightened slowly, still locked in that folded stance, eyes darting around the darkened space. "Not bad, Akindo. Not bad at all... never took you to be a sorcerer of this calibre..." he said almost fanatically.
I let the silence stretch for a beat before answering. "Thanks, I try to do my best..."
"Hahaha... modest to the very end, ain't you... tell me, do modern sorcerers think modesty is some sort of virtue these days... that it's good being good just for the sake of it?" he asked loudly, the kind of philosophy which I could never understand.
"Get to the point, would you..." I asked, irritation rising inside me.
"Haha... okay, be as you like. Tell me, Akindo, do you really think you have won the fight just because you have expanded your domain? You think so too, don't you? It's apparent from your face. How reckless of you..." he snarled.
"Domains are a double-edged sword. If you can't end your enemy in time while the domain is active, it will be you who dies. The extreme expenditure of cursed energy, the backlash of having one's technique on burnout... I just have to sit here comfortably and wait until your domain collapses on its own, and then you'll be helpless... if you think the domain has given you a possibility of winning, then you're dead wrong... it has just put you in a bigger mess.
What a reckless move." He grinned.
"I wouldn't call it reckless." I rolled my shoulders. "Though I gotta ask. That looks like an anti-domain technique. Never heard of it, must be one from ancient times... a good choice, I have no doubt... but."
His jaw tightened, barely.
"You've been dodging around one thing this entire fight," I continued, circling slowly. "Landed hits on me. Plenty of them, actually. That head shot earlier hurt like hell. Even forced me to show that I know Reverse Cursed Technique. And even after you learned I could heal—even after that should've told you this fight was gonna drag out longer than you wanted—you still never opened anything of your own."
"Tell me... is it just me or... you don't seem to have a..."
"Careful. You're starting to sound like a man who thinks he's figured something out." He didn't let me continue the sentence, interrupting me midway.
"Maybe... but I have a theory... that you don't have one."
"A domain, that is... That's why you kept running instead of committing. That's why you're standing there right now, using an anti-domain technique instead of your own. You have thrown basically everything possible you could get your hands on short of a shopping mall and more at me, and here I am standing, knowing most of your attacks aren't doing shit. It's strange you didn't resort to your domain, especially when I could have ended the fight if I had landed even one solid hit on you. Perhaps not ended it, but it would've been really bad for you, that I'm certain about. And yet you chose to run, keep your distance, even after learning my technique or that I have Reverse Cursed Technique... choosing a dragged-out fight."
His expression didn't crack, not fully, but something flickered behind his eyes.
"Interesting theory." His voice stayed level, hands still locked together, refusing to relax even a fraction. "Care to test it?"
"Be my guest..." I shrugged.
"Though, funny thing about theories like that," I said. "Is that people assume the fear in these situations comes from the fighting. Really, it's the waiting. Standing there, locked up, wondering when it's coming."
"Are you narrating my death, or is there a point somewhere in this?"
"Oh, if it's not obvious then sorry, I'm kind of new to this, but essentially, I am rage-baiting you to open your own domain, have a domain clash with me. Let's end this cat-and-mouse game, I'm getting sick of it... of course, if you can't, then don't mind me." I smiled.
"And you say that ain't reckless enough... really, are all modern-day sorcerers this hot-blooded and brutish..."
"I would like to deny that, but unfortunately, yes..." I shrugged, really couldn't argue with that. Everyone halfway impressive in the current cast is basically in their teens or early twenties. It's only natural they're hot-blooded brutes.
And Gojo... well, age certainly hasn't done him justice.
Both of us stared at each other, I expecting that he would open his domain and he waiting for mine to collapse.
And as time went by, the patience was running thin... and the air even thinner.
'What is this...? Why do I feel like something's wrong here...' Reggie panted. Something was clearly wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Reggie's brow furrowed, first at the air, then at his own stance, though his hands stayed exactly where they were.
Seconds ticked by.
"...This is taking a while," he muttered, more to himself than to me.
"It is now?... you can always end it with a domain, you know..." I cheekily replied, which he mostly ignored.
His eyes darted left and right... his breathing getting erratic as time passed, and he felt like he was sweating buckets...
'What's going on... why is it so hot in here?' He finally noticed. He hadn't even realised the heat until now.
His eyes roamed around once more before finally settling on me, specifically on my shirt, soaked clean through and clinging, and clearly not from sweat alone.
'Is that from the earlier tank burst?' he asked, but no, he knew the water from the tank didn't hit me completely, only on the left side, not enough to have my whole body soaking.
His eyes then shifted to the air itself, visibly thick now, steam curling lazily along the barrier's inner edge with nowhere left to go.
Steam?
"Part of the domain?"
"No... I can feel the effect even inside the Hollow Wicker Basket..." He muttered to himself, and then it finally dawned on him.
His hands fell apart.
Nothing happened.
"...No." He said it quietly, almost to himself, already reaching for the receipts lining his jacket with hands that had gone faintly unsteady.
They came away damp. Not soaked through yet, but damp enough that the ink had already started to bleed faintly at the edges.
"B-but how? How is that possible, the sure-hit..." He trailed off, as if his thoughts were finally starting to clear.
"I mean, you did tell me I need a long-range option in my arsenal." I spread my hands. "I just had to improvise, you know."
His head snapped up, something between disbelief and genuine fury settling into his face. "How... how did you—" He stopped himself, eyes flicking to the cross still looming silently behind me, to the darkened barrier still holding steady around us both. "This whole thing—"
"Half right." I gestured lazily at the cross. "That part's real. Just not the whole picture. Consider it a very selective preview."
"You tricked me into Hollow Wicker Basket. With a fake sure-hit."
"You tricked yourself, technically. I just left the door open and let you walk through it." I shrugged. "Ancient sorcerer, lots of history with real domains—it would be obvious that you'd be wary of it... you wouldn't wait to verify whether it was a real domain or just a mere trick."
His hand closed slowly around one of the damp receipts, testing it, willing cursed energy into the paper. It caught, flickered weakly, and died within a second—not enough sustained burn left in the soggy fibers to manifest anything more than smoke.
"...You planned all of this. The tank. The ceiling. All of it."
"As I said, I had to improvise. Some of it was mere opportunity."
His eyes went to the barrier above him. "That's not a domain barrier, is it?"
"Nope... just a normal one. I wished to try it out ever since I learned how to make one a few days ago." I smiled.
Reggie closed his eyes, everything suddenly fitting together in his mind like puzzle pieces.
"Let me guess, you set that barrier to trap moisture inside while making it look like a domain barrier. The water from the tank... you evaporated it with your cursed energy trait to increase the humidity inside the barrier. And then you intentionally kept distracting me until the saturation point was hit..." Reggie said, hands clenching tight.
"All to make my paper wet so I can't use my technique..."
"Man... there goes my satisfying explanation of my master plan..." I huffed. Half the fun is explaining a master plan to the opponent after it works. I have decided, I don't like smart opponents.
"But yeah... basically that was the idea. Heat up the water from the tank on the floor, trap the moisture with a barrier, and disguise it as a domain so you wouldn't try to run anymore..." I shrugged.
"And what if I had a domain..." He grumbled...
"You would've used it a long time ago if you really had one."
He gritted his teeth. He had really been tricked to the very end, and by a modern sorcerer no less... this was humiliating for someone like Reggie Star.
"Then tell me what the hell is that cross over there... if this is not a domain." He pointed towards the giant cross behind me.
"Oh, this... it's a part of my actual domain. I had it brought here partly to sell the act and partly for what comes after this..." I grinned.
'Comes after?' He didn't get it, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The chances of getting a peaceful ending increase if they don't know I'm about to loot everything they have now, don't they?
Reggie Star was speechless for a second...
"Wait, you mean you really have a domain...?"
"Yup."
"Then why, why do all this? Why not just expand your domain from the start?" He asked, almost fanatically...
"Oh, that... well, I don't want to be impolite or anything, but I just didn't feel the pressure to do that... you know...
"Because You're Weak."
xXx
A/N : Haha... did I trick you guys or what. But honestly, writing this particular fighting was hard, too much mind had to be put in it...
And yeah, just wish to write that one Gojo Line... you know.
Would appreciate stones if you can spare any. Thank you.
If you want to read up to 10+ Chapters in advance, check my Patreon on
Patreon.com/Kamidemond